I’ve been trying to figure out how to invest in Podcasting.  I have a bunch of exposure to it via my investments in FeedBurner and NewsGator (hint – coming soon – maybe even this week).  However, I don’t listen to Podcasts much because I’m a reader, I’ve never been a talk radio guy, and I couldn’t figure out when to listen to them.

Until recently, I was a running purist – no music on my runs (I found my iPod too bulky and I thought I should just enjoy nature.)  Well – on a long run – after about an hour – I’ve had enough of nature, all the random thoughts have cycled through my brain, and I’m ready for some music (or talk radio).  So – I’ve started running with my iPod Shuffle recently (quickly becoming an indispensable running tool).  I started with music, but figured I’d try listening to Podcasts to try to understand both the phenomenon and the dynamic.

I had a crossover moment today on my run while listening to Dick Costolo’s interview on Venture Voice (which is great BTW – I love working with Dick and this interview (part 1, part 2) is a great 40 minute investment for any entrepreneur.)  I suddenly got why people listen to this stuff and realized that if I was bored, I could simply skip to the next, tune out for a while, or take my headphones out of my ear and just enjoy the run.  So – I’m hooked – and will start listening to Podcasts while I work out.

I’ve been paying attention to the various areas that are being focused on by VCs, including creation, subscription, hosting, and search / discovery.  I’m really struggling to see how it’s different from features that are quickly being rolled into other services, other than the nuances associated with dealing with audio (and video for vLogs) vs. text.  We’ll see.

Jeff Jarvis has a comprehensive summary of Rupert Murdoch’s recent speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.  I don’t follow all the media titans, but Murdoch coming out and talking clearly about how print media needs to change – especially in the face of blogging and the way that the next generation of digital natives (“young people” – according to Murdoch) deal with news and information – is an important acknowledgment of the changing zeitgeist in mainstream media.

Nike – as usual – is trying a bunch of marketing and branding things in and around blogs.  I got a note from Josh Spear who runs a blog he refers to as “the pulse of cool” who was chosen by Nike to participate in their online / blogger shoe design contest. 

Josh put up a white and yellow design which you should go vote for.  His is the white and yellow sneaker called “The Spear.”  Josh is in second place, no doubt helped by his own use of his blog to get the word out.

Dave Taylor – a Boulder-based entrepreneur and blogger – has created a half day workshop for business executives and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to use blogging in their business.  New West Network – in which I’m an angel investor – is a sponsor and the agenda looks interesting and relevant.  If you want to get up to speed on business blogging, this looks like a content rich and reasonably priced ($175) event that’s being held at the Boulder Outlook Hotel on 5/5/05 (ah – fun with numbers) from 9am – 12n.

I’ve recently become obsessed with the notion that all my data should be integrated in one place and be able to be entered from one place.  Of course, this isn’t true, but as my compute infrastructure gets smarter, this will become a lot easier.

I’ve got three types of data: (1) the stuff I want the world to see, (2) the stuff I want certain people to see, and (3) the stuff that is just for me.  Logically, my blog (or “my website” – doh) should be the entry point for everything that I create that fits in category #1. 

On my main page, the right sidebar has a new item in it: Page Two.  This is my page for screwing around with integrating all the various web services available from sites that I current use to create stuff I want the world to see.  The first one I’ve integrated is Judy’s Book.  My good friend Andy Sack is the CEO – he and I have done several companies together, including Abuzz which was bought by New York Times Digital.  Judy’s Book is Andy’s newest venture and he’s starting to shift in beta mode, so take a look.

Integrating the two most relevant categories in Judy’s Book – “Latest Posts” and “Friends” was trivial – it took less then 5 minutes once I’d set the Page 2 page up.  For now, I’ll use Page 2 as a sandbox so as to not clutter up my main page.  Eventually, I’ll figure out a more logical page layout / menu system for the site that incorporates all of this data.

I’m playing around with some of the characteristics of my Feedburner feed so I apologize in advance (and ask for your indulgence) if you get multiple copies of posts.  Things should settle down in a couple of days.

I got the following email from a friend today that I hadn’t talked to in a year or so (see – email isn’t dead…).

Brad,

Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know I am planning to start using Rally on several projects I am working on as a “Rent-a-cto”. 

Blog + Marketing = Blarketing

I got turned on to these guys from reading about them in your Blog.

Hope all is well in Feldland!

Earlier today, I gave an interview about the used of RSS / Blogging in corporate marketing and sales activity.  I dissed the  “blogs as an extension of a lame-ass corporate marketing campaign” stuff pretty hard.  In the interview, I tried to explain that part of the value of the blog communication is honest, trusted, forthright point of views.  You don’t have to agree with me – but you know I’m saying what I mean.  Once this cycle of trust is broken – which is true whenever one shifts into a “corporate marketing” function (“I’m going to tell you want I think you want to hear in order to buy my product”) – things get stupid and gross pretty fast.

But Blarketing – and Brogging – is different.  I’ve talked about Brogging before in the context of “Bragging about one of my companies” on my blog.  Yeah – it’s promotion – but I’m proud of the work being done and I want the world to know.  Blarketing is similar – I’m trying to tell you about real stuff that I think is good and worthwhile.  If I stear you wrong and BS you, you’ll decide I’m full of crap and start ignoring me.  So – there’s a built in governer on my behavior.  I think this is broadly true for a medium like blogging – I get immediate feedback if I’m spewing out useless shit – and I know this – so I try to communicate relevant stuff, transparently, and with as much clarity and frankness as I can muster.

We’ll go through plenty of ups and downs along the way to using RSS / Blogging as an effective marketing medium.  I’ve already seen a lot of new memes get propagated and I look forward to seeing some of these silly words take hold.

I got this email after my interview.  If I had read it beforehand, I might have accomplished coining a new term today (which we should attribute to my friend Marvin Scaff – thanks Marvin).  Does it count if it’s in print in blog vs. traditional media?

I stole Matt’s subtitle because it’s so cute.  If you are part of either side of the “email is dead, no it’s not” debate, go read Matt’s post on “The Rumors of Email’s Demise …”.  I couldn’t have said it better myself – so I won’t – just read what Matt said.

Dick Costolo and his gang at Feedburner have been on the front lines of the podcasting explosion.  They’ve got great metrics on the growth and dynamics of podcasting and just put up a post on RSS Metrics, Podcasting that’s must reading for anyone that’s into RSS and/or podcasting.